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Poster: opticaltoys Date: Mar 16, 2016 12:34pm
Forum: general Subject: cannot view books

I have been using archive.org for years, all on basically the same computer system, Windows XP, the latest Firefox. I use it mainly in researching old books. I have never had any problem whatsoever until some time last fall. It was then that I first noticed that the book didnt immediately appear. This included all the white controls, anything in the black rectangle. It was just all black. At first it seemed that it needed time, or else my random clicking helped. That is to say, I have idea what made the book finally appear. I had no need to use the archive until this psst week, and now no matter how long I wait, nothing will appear.

I emailed Archive about it but the fellow seemed less than interested to help, basically telling me to upgrade the computer. But here's the thing. I discovered, and the Archive guy corroborated, that the book reader on NYPL's digital collections site works on this computer just fine. Also, today I did find some books on archive.org that would view. But they seem to be a special subset. They are on one of the site's own introduction pages about their collection. Any book on this page I can view. https://archive.org/details/BookReader

I presented this latest information to the fellow at Archive, but apparently you're only allowed to ask them one or two questions. He doesn't respond. I get the feeling he doesn't care either. Archive.org has been a godsend to my work, this glitch really messes me up. Any help or ideas, short of telling me to just download everything!, woukd be greatly appreciated.

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Poster: pegzmasta Date: Mar 16, 2016 1:47pm
Forum: general Subject: Re: cannot view books

You will find that although admins are not always up to the task of helping you out, that the community of users at IA are always willing to lend a hand (we're not in a position to apply bugfixes, however). I speak about this camaraderie in the following post (I changed the subtitle in brackets to suit the particular forum when I posted it): I suspect that the reason that the books that you've linked to in your post work better than most, is because they rely on free/libre file formats like Cascading Style Sheets (these style sheets tell the BookReader how to iterate through the jpegs). Browsers have a much easier time reading libre formats since they are based on an Open Standard. If you encounter any books in formats like PDF or ePub for instance, you can open those up inside of Firefox itself (which is similar in fashion to how the BookReader behaves). To do so, you'll need 2 specific plug-ins:
  • Lucifox (I am not listing EPUBReader, because it's custom license is Nonfree)
  • PDF.js (if you are using Windows XP, then I suspect that you're version of Firefox may be old; thus, you may not have PDF.js which comes with the latest version by default)
If there truly is a bug with BookReader, then I would suggest you file a bug report (not everyone uses Windows XP, so you're problem may be considered as unique) as explained on the following page:
Ps: To further showcase any visual errors with the white controls for BookReader, attach a screenshot of it to this thread. I welcome your feedback, Michael Pagan E-Mail: mailto:michael.pagan@member.fsf.org
This post was modified by pegzmasta on 2016-03-16 20:47:02

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Poster: opticaltoys Date: Mar 16, 2016 4:19pm
Forum: general Subject: Re: cannot view books

Thanks for the quick reply.
Let me be as clear as I can. There were only 3 of the 4 books appearing on:
https://archive.org/details/BookReader
That I could see. The bird book, the octopus book (very cook pictures btw!) and the book on color. The one "Abroad" seems to go to a page that is down.
That's it. I have tried random and numerous samples that I have bookmarked. None have showed up. Perhaps every single one, by coincedance has this feature that you mention (which I don't understand!) but it's kind of hard to believe it's true. Right now I will try another 5 books at random.

well, well well, the very first one worked.
http://archive.org/stream/jackdawofrheims00ingo#page/n3/mode/2up

ok this is interesting. here's what I have for a bookmark for this other book:
http://www.archive.org/stream/fleursdaprsnatur00guil#page/n35/mode/thumb
but then I click on the title in the upper left, which takes me to the catalog page, and the smaller view of the book. nothing. all black.
BUT that Jackdaw book does work back on the catalog page.

This is all so strange. I was prepared to upload image after image of blank for you. But at least now it might give someone something that will help explain this, and hopefully can help me make it work.

Just for another example, here is a book that I have bookmarked straight to the catalog front page.
https://archive.org/details/cu31924021800242
And I get the black rectangle. Nothing. See file #3.

I'm happy to give more examples if you want.


Attachment: interpreters-book.jpg
Attachment: jackdaw-book.jpg
Attachment: fleurs-book.jpg

Reply [edit]

Poster: pegzmasta Date: Mar 16, 2016 7:01pm
Forum: general Subject: Re: cannot view books

Forget what I said about the Cascading Style Sheets, I thought you only were only talking about The Open Library E-Book– not the other 4 books on that page. The link for the "Abroad" E-Book on that page is not down; the author (mang@archive) simply made a spelling mistake when he entered that link in the Description. I myself have encountered similar spelling mistakes in terms of HTML. To get this particular link to work, click on the link and delete the red text as shown below in your address bar: http://www-mang.archive.org/stream/abroadcranethoma00craniala#page/n7/mode/2up Make sure to post on the The Internet Archive Software Collection Forum that there is a typo on the Details page for the Internet Archive BookReader (make sure to reference this post). As for the "Jackdaw" (works on Catalog page) vs. the "Fleurs" (does not work on Catalog page) books… I'm not too sure why you are experiencing that problem. They both work fine for me and both maintain the exact same type of files. I've only noticed 2 differences between those E-Books:
  • Jackdaw– Display in terms of printing is Portrait-based, and this E-Book maintains 18 files (one more compared to the other; the bw.pdf file)
  • Fleurs– Display in terms of printing is Landscape-based, and this E-Book maintains 17 files
I'm at a loss as to what may be affecting the "Fleurs" E-Book for you. Sorry if I wasn't of much help. This may be a longshot, but I'll see if it's possible to conduct BookReader Testing on that E-Book. If I'm able to do it, it may reveal a difference between those 2 books; however, I'm not sure if I can do it– tomorrow I'll find out, and will report back here.
This post was modified by pegzmasta on 2016-03-17 02:01:37

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Poster: opticaltoys Date: Mar 18, 2016 6:47am
Forum: general Subject: Re: cannot view books

Hi again,
I hadn't tried any of this on another browser. This morning I downloaded a slightly earlier version of Opera that can run on XP, 28.0.
I can now see any book. It seems to be a little slow, but doesn't matter at this point.

So, unless you want to keep looking into it for your own curiousity, I'm happy enough to just have Opera around to do the book viewing that I need.

Thanks for your help.

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Poster: pegzmasta Date: Mar 18, 2016 7:20am
Forum: general Subject: Re: cannot view books

That's great! I'm glad you found a solution to your problem. If this issue ever becomes common, then I'll try the BookReader Testing– for now, I'll leave it be.